There were a couple I'd picked because the titles had been recommended. A couple more I picked because I knew them as being parts of a book series. Then there were one or two I selected because they really had caught my eye.
One of them was this one.
The cover was lovely and different, the title was an easy lure as I have an affection for reading about the macabre. A story about a coffin maker seemed a very unique idea in children's fiction. It lay at the bottom of my book pile for ages, then I had to take it to the library today. Something about it made me hang on to it, take it with me on my shopping rounds and open it when I sat down to my usual 'coffee treat' at a local supermarket.
It was like a pandora's box that once opened could not be closed. An hour and a half had passed before I realised that my coffee had long since been finished. It tells the story of Alberto; a furniture maker who turns to making coffins after the tragic deaths of his wife and children from plague. One day many years later, he has to make a coffin for a woman who - despite living in his tiny Italian seaside village for over a year - is a complete unknown.
After her very quiet funeral (attended only by the coffin maker, pair of local gossips and the priest) strange things start to happen as secrets about her life begin to come to light. In it all the coffin maker befriends her son and they form a bond that goes a long way to both of their healing.
In a world where there are a plethora of children's books about kids who lose their parents, it was a brave choice to start this book with a man who loses his wife and children. Loss is loss, no doubt about it. I can not even begin to imagine what that pain is like. This book made me feel that in the first 5 pages and I'm not ashamed to say that I had to wipe my eyes in that bleeding cafe several times.
This book was so full of bitter sweet moments that I felt my heart tug at each and every one. There were sentences that just stood out through their sheer beauty, like this one:
"It (the train) took five days and four nights to chug through the wild mountains that split the country in two."
Or this one:
"The dead cannot hurt us;only the living can do that."
I found myself sighing more times than I can count, such was the overwhelming charm of it.
Book 17 of my 52 book list and a book with an appealing cover (and a heartwarming story) this is a beautiful book that everyone should try to read at some point.
Book Title: The Boy, the Bird and the Coffin Maker
Author: Matilda Woods
Illustrator: Anuska Allepuz
Published: 2017
Pages: 185
Suitable for: children aged 7 and up (so long as parents feel they can handle the idea of their children reading about plague and death)
Interesting words: tumultuous, colossal, temperamental, resigned, adorn, intoned
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